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Executive Summary Over the past 30 years Wal-Mart has grown into the world leader in retail and

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Executive Summary Over the past 30 years Wal-Mart has grown into the world leader in retail and supply chain management. However, the company has faced and continues to face challenges with its stakeholders and other parties who are very critical of their business practices and ethics. Wal-Mart has established a reputation of squeezing the little guy to acquire the lowest possible price for the most earnings at the expense of some of its stakeholders as addressed in the 2005 documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price by director Robert Greenwald. Various parties including community groups, religious organizations, grassroots organizations, environmental groups and Wal-Mart customers as well as current and former associates have …show more content…

from grocery business. Wal-Mart has experience several stakeholder issues and controversies since the mid 90’s. Wal-Mart’s stakeholders include customers, a vast employee work force, civic organizations, faith groups, government leaders, non-profit groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other concerned individuals. Walmart’s Stakeholder problem In order to understand how impactful Wal-Mart is in our society and its effect on business, we must first look at how it has shaped everyday life in America better known as the “Wal-Mart Effect.” In The Wal-Mart Effect and a Decent Society: Who Knew Shopping was so import, Charles Fishman says this: “It is when Wal-Mart comes into town, reshapes shopping habits, and drains the viability of traditional local shopping areas or mom-and-pop shops. It is the relentless downward pressure on the prices of everyday necessities that a single vast retailer can exert on behalf of customers. It is the suburbanization of shopping; the downward pressure on wages at all kinds of stores trying to compete with Wal-Mart; the relentless scrutiny of unnecessary costs that allows companies to survive on thinner profits; the success of large business at the expense of its rivals and the way in which that success builds on itself” (Fishman, 2006). Walmart affects more people than the patrons that go in and out of their stores. The 2005 documentary examined the real effect Wal-Mart has on the communities it

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